Commercial laundering apparatus

ABSTRACT

In commercial laundering apparatus, an article to be cleaned is carried between a pair of flexible belts which are trained over a plurality of rollers with the articles carried by the belts passing through a washing solution held in a tank. Movement means are provided in the laundering apparatus to provide a brushing and flushing motion for the article to be cleaned to enhance the laundering process. These movement means cause the belts to move transverse to the direction of movement between the rollers, the transverse movement being both perpendicular to the plane formed by the belts and coplanar therewith.

Elteel States Patent [1 1 Ross 1 1 COMMERCIAL LAUNDERING APPARATUS [76] Inventor: Abe D. Ross, 9275 A-Burton Way,

Los Angeles, Calif. 90210 221 Filed: Nov. 10,1971

21 Appl. No.: 197,725

Pace 68/44 X Sept. 11, 1973 3,406,542 10/1968 Kusters et a1. 68/175 Primary Examiner-Wayne A. Morse, Jr. Assistant ExaminerArthur 0. Henderson Att0rneyPeter L. Berger [57] ABSTRACT In commercial laundering apparatus, an article to be cleaned is carried between a pair of flexible belts which are trained over a plurality of rollers with the articles carried by the belts passing through a washing solution held in a tank. Movement means are provided in the laundering apparatus to provide a brushing and flushing motion for the article to be cleaned to enhance the laundering process. These movement means cause the belts to move transverse to the direction of movement between the rollers, the transverse movement being both perpendicular to the plane formed by the belts and coplanar therewith.

15 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures Patented Sept. 11, 1973 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Patented Sept. 11, 1973 3,757,546

3 Sheets-Sheet z 'r "1 A'B z D Yzzz-s Patented Sept 11, 1973 3,757,546

3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. ABE D. ROSS COMMERCIAL LAUNDERING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to commercial laundering apparatus, and particularly, to an improvement for such apparatus to enhance the washing and laundering action obtained therewith.

Most commercial laundries utilize relatively complex and expensive equipment in which the articles to be laundered are passed through a cleansing solution held in the tank. Merely the passage of the article through the solution is effective enough to provide relatively excellent effects. Frequently though, the laundered article must be processed several times to remove all stains, dirt and grime found therein and this process is relatively expensive.

After the article is laundered, it is passed through a steam heat device or heated air device and then to an ironer for the laundering process to be completed.

An object of my invention is to provide an improved laundering apparatus which provides enhanced laundering action.

Another object of my invention is to provide such a laundering apparatus which enhances the laundering process without materially increasing the cost thereof.

Still another object of my invention is to provide such a laundering apparatus which may effectively be utilized with most conventional existing equipment so as to minimize expense incurred in utilizing my equipment.

Other objects, advantages and features of my invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the principles of my invention, the above objects are accomplished by providing in a laundering apparatus which includes a tank containing a washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by the laundering apparatus being carried therebetween, the improvement comprising means for moving the belts in a direction transverse to the belt movement, both transverse in a co-planar direction and in a perpendicular direction to achieve a flushing and brushing action. The article to be cleaned, while being carried between the belts, is brushed by means of the belts being oppositely moved with respect to each other with the article to be cleaned being held therebetween and brushed by the coarse material which forms the belt. In addition, a flushing action is achieved by movingthe v belts vertically in accordance with any of several illus-.

trated embodiments. In particular, the rollers may be reciprocated in a vertical direction as they rotate thus carrying the flexible belts upwardly and downwardly causing the article carried therebetween to be flushed through the washing solution.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be further described with reference to embodiments thereof, illustrated by way of example on the accompanying drawings in. which:

FIG. I is a sectional view through a laundering apparatus illustrating a pair of flexible belts with an article to be cleaned carried therebetween and being trained over a plurality of rollers;

FIG. 2 is one embodiment of an elliptical roller utilized for achieving the reciprocating vertical movement;

FIG. 3 is another embodiment of my invention illustrating an alternate means for achieving the reciprocating vertical movement;

FIG. 4 is still another embodiment of my invention illustrating the vertical reciprocating movement achieved with an eccentric mechanism;

FIG. 5 is a view of an embodiment of my invention for achieving the coplanar transverse movement for the belts by utilizing an obliquely mounted roller;

FIG. 6 is a top view of one of the obliquely mounted rollers of FIG. 5 driving a web-shaped belt;

FIG. 7 is an end view of a roller and belt assembly illustrating another embodiment of my invention for achieving the coplanar transverse motion; and

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along lines 8-8 of FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, there is shown a laundering apparatus 10 containing a cleaning solution 12 through which an article to be cleaned is carried. The article 14 is carried between two flexible belts 16 and 18 which are trained over a plurality of rollers such as feed rollers 20 and drive rollers 22. The flexible belt is trained successively over each of the rollers 22 and in this manner traverse a path through the cleaning solution to achieve the desired laundering effect. The article to be cleaned is first car ried through a washing portion 24 and then is driven by rollers 26 in a rinsing solution 28. After the article is rinsed in-bath 28, it is fed from between the exit rollers 30 to the next stage in,the laundering process, which for instance, might include the passage of the article between a superheated steam process 31 or a heated air process or both to an ironer 33 to complete the laundering process.

The article may be fed to a folding apparatus (not shown) to complete the laundering process. Where permanent press articles are utilized, the ironing step may be'dispensed with since the articles as they emerge from the superheated steaming or heated air processes will have the proper and desired appearance.Belts l6 and 18 are continuous and are carried from rollers 30 back to rollers 20, with belt 18 being directly carn'ed between rollers 30 and 20 while belt 16 is first trained over rollers 32 and 34, and thence to roller 20.

As can be readily appreciated, the article to be cleaned while being carried through the laundering and rinsing processes will undergo a laundering process which,-generally, is suflficient to remove most dirt and stains embedded therein. In many instances, though, it is necessary to successively rerun the articles because of stubborn stains and dirt which are not removed in the first laundering and rinsing steps. In fact, with some stains, it is possible that they arenever removed in spite of successively being rerun through the laundering apparatus.

In order to enhance the laundering process, I provide movement means to achieve a brushing and flushing motion for the article as it is carried through the laundering process. These movement means cause the flexible belts to move transverse to the direction of movement between the rollers, the reciprocal or rocking movement beingtransverse to the movement of the belts between the rollers both in the plane formed by the rollers and that perpendicular thereto.

FIG. 2 is a view of one embodiment of a roller 22 which is elliptically shaped in order to provide the reciprocal vertical movement as the flexible belts l6 and 18 are trained thereover. FIG. 3 is another embodiment of an eccentrically driven roller 22 which also achieves the vertical reciprocating motion to provide the desired flushing action as the article is reciprocally vertically moved through the laundering or cleaning solution. FIG. 4 is yet another embodiment of my invention for achieving the vertical reciprocating motion with each of the rollers 22 in a vertical line being simultaneously driven by an eccentric mechanism. In particular, the eccentric mechanism comprises a cam 34 being connected by means of an arm 36 to the rollers 22 to simultaneously drive the rollers in a vertically reciprocating manner. As can be readily appreciated, other movement means may be devised to achieve the desired flushing action by means of vertically reciprocating the belts and the article carried therebetween through the cleaning solution.

In addition to the above described flushing action, there is provided a movement means for brushing the article by means of moving the flexible belts with the article carried therebetween being brushed as. the belts are moved.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown an embodiment of my invention in which the roller 22 is obliquely mounted on the drive shaft 38 so that the movement of roller 22 follows a helical path. Referring now to FIG. 6, there is shown a top view of one such roller assembly 22 which comprises a plurality of teeth engaging the flexible belt 16. The belt may be a mesh shape as illustrated therein and comprise a relatively rough surface to enhance the brushing action. Other such constructions may be provided-for the belt, with the flexible belts being substantially perforated therethrough which would allow a relatively rough surface to be presented to the article as the belts are reciprocated in the coplanar direction. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the open mesh network for the belt 16 allows the reciprocating action to take place because the width of the open mesh is greater than that of the individual teeth 40 although the opening is substantially equal to the end-to-end distance of the angulated roller 22.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrates yet another embodiment of my invention in which the reciprocating coplanar movement is achieved for the flexible belts 16 and 18 with the article carried therebetween being brushed accordingly. Drive pins 42 and 44 are attached to the outer edges of belts l6 and 18 respectively and are driven by respective fixed contour drive means 46 and 48 which is corrugated in shape comprising successive crests and valleys. As the pins 42 and 44 move in their .respective fixed drive contours, the belts carried thereby preferably are oppositely reciprocated in a direction which is coplanar to the plane formed by the belts with the pins 42 and 44 moving in opposite crests and in opposite valleys of the respective corrugated drive means to achieve maximum relative movement between the belts. In this manner, the article carried therebetween is brushed by the oppositely moved flexible belts to enhance the laundering process.

The flexible belts, as described above, may be formed of an open mesh network or may also be formed of a twisted wire carrying a supporting bristle such as found in bottle brushes, the bristle supports the fabric to be laundered and simultaneously permits penetration of the washing solutions. The belt may also be constructed as a flat wire mesh, as described above. The wire belt may be provided with fibers protruding therefrom to contact the fabric.

As can be readily appreciated, I provide a complete washer cycle including the washing, drying and ironing for flatwork laundering as a continuous operation incorporating the cool wetting, solution immersion, scrubbing, flushing, rinsing and drying by compressed air and steam to be fed thereafter directly onto an ironer and folding apparatus, where desired. To enhance the laundering action, my invention provides movement means for achieving a side-by-side or coplanar movement between the belts to achieve the desired brushing action and a vertically reciprocating movement means to achieve the desired flushing action.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above apparatus without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A laundering apparatus comprising a tank holding washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by said laundering apparatus being carried between said pair of belts, the improvement comprising movement means for providing a movement for saidbelts which is transverse to the belt movement between said rollers to provide additional washing action, said belt simultaneously being moved in said transverse direction, said movement means comprising means for moving selected ones of said rollers to achieve the transverse movement, said movement means comprising means for eccentrically rotating said rollers about a shaft.

2. A laundering apparatus comprising a tank holding washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by said laundering apparatus being carried between two pair of belts, the improvement comprising movement means for providing a movement for said belts which is transverse to the belt movement between said rollers to provide additional washing action, said belts being simultaneously moved in said transverse direction, said movement means comprising said rollers, said rollers being eliptically shaped to provide said transverse motion.

3. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein said movement means comprises means for simultaneously moving said belts in opposite directions so that said article carried between said belts is brushed by said belts.

4. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein said means for simultaneously moving said belts in opposite directions comprises means for moving said belts in respective planes, said planes being substantially parallel.

5. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 4, comprising pin means attached to said belts and projecting in the plane of the respective belt, said pin means projecting from one edge of one of said belts and from the opposite edge of the other of said belts, fixed contour drive means communicating with said pins to move said belts in opposite directions, said contour drive means comprising successive crest and valley regions to provide said parallel planar directions of movement.

6. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein said rollers are rotated through a helical path and drive said belts in said parallel planar directions.

7. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein said rollers comprise teeth and said belts comprise a relatively coarse material and slot means to engage teeth of said rollers to be driven thereby in said parallel planar directions.

8. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein said slot means are wider thansaid teeth to accommodate the helical movement of said teeth.

9. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 8, wherein said belt means comprises a wire open mesh, said slot means being formed by openings in said mesh.

10. A laundering apparatus comprising a tank holding washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by said laundering apparatus being carried between two pair of belts, the improvement comprising means for moving each of said belts of said pair of belts side to side in the plane of each of said belts, respectively, said belts moving in opposite directions with respect to each other to provide a scrubbing action.

11. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 10, comprising pin means attached to said belts and projecting in said plane of the respective belt, said pin means projecting from one edge of one of said belts and from opposite edge of the other of said belts, fixed contour drive means communicating with said pins to move said belts in opposite directions, said contour drive means comprising successive crest and valley regions to provide the planar parallel opposite directional movement.

12. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 10,

wherein said rollers are rotated through a helical path and drive said belts in said parallel planar directions.

13. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein said rollers comprise teeth and said belts comprise a relatively coarse material and slot means to engage said teeth of said rollers to be driven thereby into parallel planar directions.

14. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 13, wherein said slot means are wider than said teeth to accommodate the helical movement of said teeth.

15. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 14, wherein said belt means comprises a wire open mesh,

said slot means being formed by openings in said mesh. 

1. A laundering apparatus comprising a tank holding washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by said laundering apparatus being carried between said pair of belts, the improvement comprising movement means for providing a movement for saidbelts which is transverse to the belt movement between said rollers to provide additional washing action, said belt simultaneously being moved in said transverse direction, said movement means comprising means for moving selected ones of said rollers to achieve the transverse movement, said movement means comprising means for eccentrically rotating said rollers about a shaft.
 2. A laundering apparatus comprising a tank holding washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by said laundering apparatus being carried between two pair of belts, the improvement comprising movement means for providing a movement for said belts which is transverse to the belt movement between said rollers to provide additional washing action, said belts being simultaneously moved in said transverse direction, said movement means comprising said rollers, said rollers being eliptically shaped to provide said transverse motion.
 3. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein said movement means comprises means for simultaneously moving said belts in opposite directions so that said article carried between said belts is brushed by said belts.
 4. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein said means for simultaneously moving said belts in opposite directions comprises means for moving said belts in respective planes, said planes being substantially parallel.
 5. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 4, comprising pin means attached to said belts and projecting in the plane of the respective belt, said pin means projecting from one edge of one of said belts and from the opposite edge of the other of said belts, fixed contour drive means communicating with said pins to move said belts in opposite directions, said contour drive means comprising successive crest and valley regions to provide said parallel planar directions of movement.
 6. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein said rollers are rotated through a helical path and drive said belts in said parallel planar directions.
 7. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein said rollers comprise teeth and said belts comprise a relatively coarse material and slot means to engage teeth of said rollers to be driven thereby in said parallel planar directions.
 8. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein said slot means are wider than said teeth to accommodate the helical movement of said teeth.
 9. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 8, wherein said belt means comprises a wire open mesh, said slot means being formed by openings in said mesh.
 10. A laundering apparatus comprising a tank holding washing solution, a pair of flexible belts being trained over a plurality of rollers with articles to be washed by said laundering apparatus being carried between two pair of belts, the improvement comprising means for moving each of said belts of said pair of belts side to side in the plane of each of said belts, respectively, said belts moving in opposite directions with respect to each other to provide a scrubbing action.
 11. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 10, comprising pin means attached to said belts and projecting in said plane of the respective belt, said pin means projecting from one edge of one of said belts and from opposite edge of the other of said belts, fixed contour drive means communicating with said pins to move said belts in opposite directions, said contour drive means comprising successive crest and valley regions to provide the planar parallel opposite directional movement.
 12. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 10, wherein said rollers are rotated through a helical path and drive said belts in said parallel planar directions.
 13. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein said rollers comprise teeth and said belts comprise a relatively coarse material and slot means to engage said teeth of said rollers to be driven thereby into parallel planar directions.
 14. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 13, wherein said slot means are wider than said teeth to accommodate the helical movement of said teeth.
 15. A laundering apparatus as set forth in claim 14, wherein said belt means comprises a wire open mesh, said slot means being formed by openings in said mesh. 